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Legislative Branch MKII
The Legislature is the law making branch of the Democraciv government. It primarily rules over gameplay and the government. Current Legislature ''' '''Roles Legislator Legislator is the title given to anyone with a seat in the legislature. Legislators must create an vote over proposed bills. The legislature also may vote over other major issues, like allowing a Declaration of War by the Ministry. Speaker It is the responsibility of the Speaker to preside over all legislative sessions, meaning they handle debates as well as the voting and post the results of the sessions to the public. Beyond these duties they have the same responsibilities as any other legislator. A Speaker is elected by the legislature during the first session of a newly elected congress. Legislative Session The legislature is now held in 2 separate posts on Reddit. The first is the debate post found on the main subreddit were proposals can be made and discussed by legislators, but the contribution of non legislature is welcome as long as it is not destructive. The second is found on the legislative subreddit where only voting takes place and any non legislative comments will be removed. The posts are presided over by the speaker, whose job within the posts is to keep any debates civil and ensure the voting process goes smoothly. Structure of Sessions Roll Call When the legislature is called into session the Speaker begins a “Roll Call” this determines which legislators are present and who is acting as a proxy for any absent legislators. This is done by the Speaker, the Speaker calls by party, members of that party then call present and state if they are acting as a proxy for someone else. The number of present legislators and the number of absent legislators that have a proxy, is then added together, if there are enough legislators to begin the session, (seventy-five (75) percent of total legislators) the session then begins. After roll call, the Speaker opens the floor to legislators (currently this is done on a "first come, first served." basis), a legislator asks for the floor and if they are the first the Speaker then gives it to them. (Exceptions include if bills from the last session must be dealt with or any other important things need to be dealt with before new bills or motions are heard.) The legislator then is able to motion to propose a new bill, amend an existing one or even simply take the floor to bring an issue to the attention of the legislature. Bill Proposal When a bill is proposed, the speaker gives an amount of time they feel appropriate (generally five (5) minutes) to read the bill before debates take place. Currently there is no set time for debates, they can last for as little or as much time as the legislature deems necessary. If at any point during the debates a legislator motions to vote on the bill and it is seconded by another legislator, the debates are stopped and a vote takes place, however this is not always the case, if other legislators feel it is too early for the vote they will oppose the motion with one of their own and if that is seconded it negates the motion to vote. Amendment Proposal Currently, during debates, a legislator may also propose an amendment to the bill being debated before the bill itself is put to a vote. If the motion to propose the amendment is seconded, the debate and vote on the main bill is halted and a debate on the amendment ensues. These debates take the same format as the main debate. Voting When a motion to vote is seconded (see above), the voting begins, this is done much like roll call is (see Roll Call). The speaker calls upon each party and the members of that party then call their votes, if a legislator is acting as a”Proxy” for someone, they also vote in their stead. There are three possible ways to vote: Yea, Nay or Abstain Yea means you agree with and wish the "item" to pass. Nay means the opposite, you do not agree and do not wish the "item" to pass. Abstain means that you have no strong opinion and are content to allow the "item" to either pass or fail based on the votes of the other legislators, this is generally only done if you do not believe the "item" in question to be either harmful or very helpful, making you neutral on its fate. "Item" refers to anything being voted on whether it be a bill, amendment or other motion requiring a vote. History There have been 8 Legislative Councils so far; # The First Congress Turn 1 - 20 (11th August 2016 - 10th September 2016) # The Second Congress Turn 20 - 20 (10th September 2016 - 2nd October 2016) # The Third Congress Turn 20 - Present (3rd October 2016 - Present) The Barebones Legislature The Barebones Legislature was a scheduled meeting held where the speaker did not show up, resulting in the creation of several bills attempting to make sure that it never happened again. ''Private_legislature'' The Legislative chat was initially private, and labelled as seen above. A proposal was voted on to make this chat public to spectators (25th August 2016) The results of the Transparency Act were: 10Y/8N/2A (The bill did not pass at first, but was later implemented) The vote (and entire session) was overseen by temporary speaker '/u/TheMysticDreamer in lieu of /u/blondehog78'' History of Proposals There have been multiple bills and amendments passed in the legislature, enough that it would be quite a lot of work to list them all separately, however thanks to the work of /u/MR_Tardis97 we have a Google Drive that provides PDF files of every bill that has currently been passed by the legislature, within the bills you will also find any amendments made to them! '''Previous Legislatures The First Congress Speaker - blondehog78 & (The Mystic Dreamer) The Second Congress Speaker - blondehog78 Category:Voting Category:Government Category:Official Category:Politics